‘I Can’t Remember Taking Loan to Run My Business Since I Started 30 Years Ago’

The publisher of Distinguished Nigerian Magazine and a former Political Editor of Daily Times Newspapers, Mr. Gbenga Adesina, in this interview with Adedayo Akinwale bears his mind on a wide range of issues. Excerpts:

Tell us a briefly about yourself

My name is Gbenga Tayo Adesina. I’m a graduate of political science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I graduated in 1986, and served 87. After that, I did my lineage correspondent with the old Daily Times which I rose to Senior Political correspondent then and eventually political editor. I was there until I resigned voluntarily to set up my Public Relations firm called Omoronike Ventures Limited. That name may sound interesting to you, it is the name of my late mother. I set it up to immortalise her name.Essentially my outfit is into Public Relations, printing and motor dealerships.

I was doing that until I got invited into the Presidential Villa to join the presidential crew under President Olusegun Obasanjo. I was there for about five years, I left again and I established my magazine called Distinguished Nigerian Magazine, it is an international quarterly magazine. Then, after 10 years, I also set up a sister newspaper called Distinguished Nigerian Newspaper, in short DN News.

What informed this publication?

Before we started the publication, I started the Distinguished Nigerian Journalist’ award. I had it about four or five times. So, that metamorphosed to setting up Distinguished Nigerian Magazine. And if you ask me why Distinguished Nigerian Magazine, I just felt that there are a lot of good things in Nigeria and why should we just set up a lot of media organisations only to criticise Nigeria activities. I felt we have many good things to celebrate in this country and setting up the magazine is to promote these values. And that is not to say that we close eyes when we see bad things happen but we concentrate mainly on the good things. Recently have just been elected as a Standing Committee member of the Nigeria Guild of Editors. This is my first interview after the election and I feel honoured by THISDAY to have been the first organisation to have this interview with me. My friends say that this election is a 60th birthday gift.

From being a journalist to a businessman, what was the transition like, what was the experience like?

When you want to do business, you can do a business that is related to your profession, if you do that, it makes it more interesting. If you see my transition, they all have links. From active journalism to Public Relations and printing, you can see the link. And from there to publisher – to publishing Distinguished Nigerian magazine and DN news, it has links. So, if from there, I went to something absurd, let’s say construction, I might have a problem because I don’t know the style. But because I am doing business in line with my profession, it makes it a lot easier. I didn’t venture out my professional calling.

To answer your question in another angle, the business environment is not easy these days because you need a lot of resources. But again, I have always believed also that it is not the amount of loans that make a successful businessman, sometimes it is more of ideas, if you have ideas and you package it, it will go a long way. For instance, I can’t remember taking any loan since I started my business over 30 years ago. I don’t take loans because I’m scared of loans. What I do is that I do business that maybe reinvent itself. When I started the magazine, I wasn’t selling, there was no advert but I kept on doing that until we got stabilised. We now have a specialised publication. Every edition has a focus and that focus will pay for itself. The next edition that is coming up now is going to cover the activities of the Kano state government because the Guild of Editors was held in Kano. We will use that now to showcase what the government has been doing. The same package will also involve the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola. Those are the types of things we do and we have no regrets.

How do you rate media coverage of insecurity and political developments in the country?.

Let’s say it as it is, the Nigeria media are one of the best in the world as far as I am concerned. If you go out now to bring the newspapers, listen to radio and television, by the time you listen to two or three, all of them cannot be pro-this, anti-this, anti-that. You will get a balanced view. Of course, there could be some organisations that could be biased, it is natural. But in specific terms, the Nigeria media are doing a very good coverage. I give the Nigeria media kudos. But they could do more, there is room for improvement. That is not to say we don’t have bad eggs among us. But I am saying in my profession in Nigeria, the majority are super. I’m so happy to be one of their leaders today as a member of the executive of the Nigeria Guild of Editors.

The APC administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari came into power in 2015, this year makes it its sixth year in office, how would you access his administration?

The President, Muhammadu Buhari started well, he meant well and a lot of people supported him. For the first four years he was on track. But the average Nigerian knows that something is wrong in Nigeria today. Some people blames it on those that surrounds the President, some people say it is politicians, some people say it is not even his fault that we should go down to the grassroot, the local government and States. But the argument of this group is that you can’t just bring out a single person and start criticising, that Nigeria is too big.

But your question is direct, he is the President, Commander in Chief of the armed forces, so the buck stops on his table. That is why I also share your idea that we need a more pragmatic President. The president should come out more. At this time we have this crisis here and there, especially insecurity challenges. I think Nigerians are expecting more from the President in terms of action and performance. We should also be careful in this analysis because we are also talking of a government fighting guerrilla warfare. It is easy for the guerillarist to hide the bomb and throw it in the marketplace, after he throws it, he disappears, lots of lives are lost.

A government cannot go and say because we are looking for someone that throws the bomb, you now throw a counter bomb in the market. These are details people don’t understand. So, fighting guerilla warfare is not easy because if care is not taken, more lives will be lost. So in the process, people think the government is not doing anything. I’m not speaking for the government, what I am saying is that the government is sensitive and issues cannot be easily handled in such a simplistic manner the way people think.

The President, being a retired general, are you satisfied with his handling of security in the country?

I’m not satisfied, just like many Nigerians are not. I expected more because in all honesty, instead of reduction in crime waves, it is escalating. So, we want the federal government to introduce new measures and a better style to handle the situation. The average Nigerian is not happy and we believe in this government that they can do it, we still believe they can do it. All we want is, we don’t want killings again, we don’t want armed robbery again. It cannot be stopped totally, no country doesn’t have crime. But If you reason, the rate at which Nigeria is going, crime-wise, the pace is too high. We want a reduction, if we cannot have zero tolerance of peace, it should be low because the average Nigerian now is not safe.

There is a political angle to it. Some are arguing that it is politically motivated. Politically motivated or otherwise, Mr. President should please find a solution to this problem because I believe he still has a lot of support.

One of the campaign promises of the present administration is to fight corruption to a stand still, how would you rate the anti-corruption war of its government?

As I said earlier, the President started very well fighting corruption and facing the security challenges. But mid way maybe because of the handlers of this corruption war, he had a crisis. Check the case of Magu (Ibrahim). Magu started very well, you could see the way he ended up. Though investigation is still on, but the fact that he was removed in that manner, to me, goes to show that there must have been some skeletons. So what we are saying is, the President, I think he might have meant well in fighting this corruption war based on his own style and personality which you can visualise. Buhari is not corrupt, he is a very simple President, he is not amassing wealth.

But it is like his aides, his foot soldiers, they are not as good as he is. What we are saying is that the check, the feedback is not well done. Because If the feedback is well done, the President ought to have known, that is, his second lieutenant, not all of them, that some of these bad eggs in his administration are not doing too good in terms of anti-corruption war. We have on record some of them that are very corrupt, just as we have some of them that are very good, that are very clean.

I have some of them as friends in the government. Inasmuch as I believe we cannot have a hundred percent corruption free society, but I think the temple is not as low as we ought to be. Under the Buhari administration, by now we should have a much lower corruption tendency rate but I don’t think so. That is why the solution is the citizens- you and I. What role are we playing in reducing corruption. Because corruption starts from the family level, to the school level and to the workplace level.

What’s your take on the ongoing constitution review?

My take is let them do a good job. Let them carry out their town hall meetings, let them give opportunities for Nigerians to fully participate and let us give it time and check the salient areas. What they are arguing is they don’t want a break up but they want devolution of power. And to me, people are not even cleared, what is devolution? What is break up?. I think essentially what people want is that the old regional set up so that every region will be independent but they will be managed by a central government. People are saying this because they want to develop their own resources themselves and use those resources to develop their area, giving a certain percentage to the federal government. They believe the federal government is too powerful now and they get all the resources without distributing evenly, even to the extent that the owners of the resources are being shortchanged. So, they are saying No, we are the owners of our resources, we will use it for our development and we contribute to the federal government. As it is now, it is not done that way, it is the federal government that collects and redistributes to the state. By and large, I think support the argument of regionalism. As I said, I don’t want a break up, I want the unity of Nigeria, but we can rearrange in a way that will be beneficial to you and I.

Within six years of this administration, the country’s economy has entered recession twice. Analysts say it was as a result of bad economic policies of the government. As a businessman, do you subscribe to that?

Let’s speak a layman’s language. The poor men are hungry. My watchman is complaining that Nigeria is tough. This economic recession stuff is grammar. You and I can see that we have inflation now, things are expensive. I think that informs the economic analysis of recession and stuff like that. I’m not an economist but between you and I, we know that things are not easy and if that is the meaning of recession. I agree that there is recession and why must it be twice. Recession means going back, I think that’s the simple meaning. If you say there is recession, it means things are not going well in the economy. Why must things be going back and we have a government and we have the resources. So, we don’t need to be in a recession. You said we are out, we are in, why can’t we be out permanently.

Although again, talking intellectually, we have a world recession now. There is a problem world over. But each country is trying to develop strategies to ameliorate this world economic recession. Nigeria is not an island, we are part of the world economy. So, if it is global, it is not just affecting Nigeria, it is affecting everybody. But that is where the President comes in, what strategy is the present administration employing to reduce the economic hardship of the average citizen? And I think they need to do more than school feeding, soft loans. To me, they sound sycophantic, because to me they are still not touching lives. If you ask me, what else do I expect? I expect with our arable lands, why can’t the government release funds or go into agreement with countries that produce tractors like China and give every local government like 50 tractors.

All our unemployed graduates attach one tractor to every 10 or 20 and they should go to the farm. And when they produce, the government should buy off all they produce and resell. Before you know it we will be feeding Africa, if not the world. To me, these are the types of practical things I expect. Because if you say I will get an alert of N10,000, how do you monitor that N10,00 you sent to me. I’m sorry to say, some even ended up going to beer parlour. If our wives are lucky, some will give it to their wives to cook, they give them N3,000. Can that sustain them for one week? If you invest that to buy tractors and you assure the man go and farm, when you finish I will buy your product, is it not beneficial.

Why did you say your generation is a wasted generation?

As I mark 60 years, I reflect,my generation is a wasted generation. I’m saying it because at my age, my mates are supposed to be governors not the fellow that was governor when I was in the university or the one that was Head of State when I was in the university is still the Head of state now. Even while at the university we liked him so much because he was carrying out a revolutionary move. Are you telling me you Akinwale, why are you not a local government chairman, I will rather vote for you than vote for someone of my age. So, if I’m 60, I’m even lucky because I have participated in a way. But the generation is a lost generation. We were not well utilised.

Where do you like the next president to come from in 2023?. Some people are clamouring for an Igbo presidency.

Let me tell you, I am a political scientist and I am a journalist and in line with my personal principle, I believe in the best and when you want the best you don’t talk of sections, that is the truth. But the type of society we are in Nigeria – heterogeneous, if care is not taken, a section can continue to produce the president and when you talk of politics, they are all combined. It is not a one way thing. The way we have good people in the North, we have good people in the South, we have good people in the East, we have good people in the West. So, there must be an arrangement so that it will go round. Since it is not just one section that has the best. We can choose the best to go round each of the sections. That is what informed rotation. If for instance, the North has just finished producing somebody that serves two terms, it is logical since the East and West also have their own best that will be comparable to the North, why don’t you give them the opportunity to bring their own beat too. I emphasised best, let’s choose the good one to govern our country. If you want to insist that only one part should be producing, then you are talking about disunity. Unity has its ingredient and the ingredient of unity is equal participation. So, if you want true unity, you will even want participation.

Do you think the PDP has been a vibrant opposition in the past six years?

The opposition are not doing well. Just last week, two sitting PDP governors defected to APC. What type of opposition is that? We are not principled. When we were in the University, as students, we had the Marxists apologists and we had the Bourgeois. A typical Marxist will hardly commit class sucide. What I’m saying is that the PDP as an opposition party has not done well enough because in the process of opposing, they stop half way and join the people they are criticising. So, a principled mind does not do that. Because the meaning of opposition is that you are principled and you are not in government. You cooperate with the government when they have good policies and criticise them when they have bad policies. The APC castigated the PDP so much and they came into power, tell me what difference. Just as PDP is castigating now, give them power, what difference. We are jokers in this country and I think our leaders should sit up, otherwise, I am afraid.